Shazam!
Any lifelong fan of superheroes has at one point wanted to be one—to suddenly have superpowers, to fight evil, to do what ordinary humans can’t do. It’s a fantasy that’s directly entertained by “Shazam!”, as director David F. Sandberg puts the premise of “Big” into the DC Cinematic Universe as it continues to expand and lighten up. But while “Shazam!” is goofier (and darker) than it may look, you'll wish its superhero came with a little more spark.
Before its heroes and villains, “Shazam!” is all about family. Asher Angel’s Billy Batson is the most clean-cut troublemaker you can find in movies these days, pranking Philadelphia cops and causing a ruckus for social workers. He’s soon welcomed into a foster home by parents Rosa (Marta Milans) and Victor (Cooper Andrews) who have a supportive and spunky makeshift family of their own, including the precocious Darla (Faithe Herman) and the video game-addicted Eugene (Ian Chen). Billy shares a room with the sarcastic Freddy (Jack Dylan Glazer), who is a DC super fan, and even has some Superman and Batman paraphernalia. And yet in spite of the love around him, Billy’s biggest goal is to break out and find the biological mother who abandoned him years ago. Mixing Billy’s pain with the warmth of his new home, “Shazam!” creates a sweet message about how you choose the family that’s around you, not unlike Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Oscar-nominated “Shoplifters.”
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Superpowers come into Billy’s life randomly, and that’s just how “Shazam!” functions—while escaping on the subway from some bullies who picked on Freddy, Billy is transported to the Rock of Eternity, the lair of the Wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou). The stoic, incredibly serious wizard transfers his powers to Billy because he finds Billy “pure of heart.” When Billy says the wizard’s name, Billy can transform from a teenager into a classic-looking hero (Zachary Levi) with red spandex, a bright lightning bolt on his chest and a cape, not to mention a bunch of powers that Billy figures out with the help of Freddy.
Billy isn’t alone, though. The maniacal Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) has found a way to the wizard’s cave without having to be invited, after experiencing his own random selection as a young boy in a very striking opening sequence that ends with a car accident and him hating his brother and father. After creating his own portal out of thin air (one of many scenes where the special effects here are aces), Dr. Sivana unleashes the Seven Deadly Sins that sat dormant in the lair, the seven spirits changing from their large gargoyle-like presence into an evil that Dr. Sivana can carry around in his right eye. When he finds out that someone has similar powers to his own, he starts to hunt Shazam down, not knowing Shazam is actually a teenage boy.